Madness is the True Reality
by xXDeathIsAPromiseXx
Summary: Based in Alice: Madness Returns. Alice breaks out of confinement and goes to find the mysterious woman...who claims to have been to Wonderland.
1. The Asylum

_Dedicated to my dear friend Ana, who puts up with my madness. _

Alice gripped the handle of her butcher knife tighter. Taking a stance with legs slightly bent for quick motion and a temporary double-handed grip on the knife. She surveyed the sight around her.

The doctors surrounded her. Most had fled at first sign of trouble, but the longstanding veterans at the asylum stood their ground, probably having lived through these kinds of situations before.

The knife had been procured in the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning when Alice went missing from her cell. Not a single lock on the door had been disturbed, it was as if she had escaped by evaporating and reconstructing outside her cell. Maybe the atoms. Of her being molecularly passed through the bonds of the wall which had allowed her to pass from the cell to the hall.

The doctors, or, what HAD been the doctors had found her in the hall outside the kitchen shortly after she got the knife. They had looked like doctors before, but now their skin was white like milk, their eyes glazed over with a thick opaque haze, and some had bandages over their faces.

They tried to take the knife from her, but after what they had done to her she swore to never give them ANYTHING.

Blood that hadn't been there the day previously now was violently strewn down the walls as if someone had filled a bucket and spun around the room in fast circles, letting itself go where it's will and gravity allowed it. A macabre scene from a story.

But the blood was fresh. Not as wet as fresh from the body, but it was almost finished collecting in pools on the white institutional linoleum floor. Not even flaking brown yet.

Alice brandished the knife over her head and charged a doctor. A man, short and stout. (Here is my handle, here is my spout. Hee hee). He grabbed her wrist but she released that hand from gripping the knife and stabbed him in the throat, just right of the jugular. The knife sank in deep and a squelching noice could be heard as she yanked it free from his flesh.

He fell to the ground with wet coughs and clutched his neck. Alice dropped to her knees with the balls of her bare feet and toes on the ground, steadying herself. She, with a double-handed grip, stabbed and hacked repeatedly at his stomach. Blood gushed, staining his clothes as the scarlet further and further extended its reach and saturated the cloth. Similar to the way madness extends its way through the mind.

Jumping to her feet Alice whipped around to face the other direction to find all but one doctor had fled. A lanky and tall man with a small mustache and a cold look in his eye stood in a ready stance, ready for her to charge him. She obliged and gave a blood-chilling shriek as she brought the knife back and connected it with the hollow above his collar bone.

The knife sank deep but portruded awkwardly, like when you snap of a barbie's arm and stick it back in, but it just isn't the same again. The man angled his head downward with his eyes wide with shock, looking at the knife in disbelief. His eyes rolled back in his head as he fainted. Alice gripped the knife with both hands and let the pull of the falling of his body do the work of freeing the knife for her.

Blood now stained Alice's hands, lower arms, a splash going down her neck still dripping, and a bloody mist covered her face. An eerie smile played at the corners of her lips like a cat with a ball of yarn. Her loose white shirt was covered in splotches as well. An early abstract of destruction. She wiped her hand down her lightweight white pants leaving a smeared and elongated bloody handprint.

Alice could hear the women screaming in their cells. Not screaming from pain but from their demons that posessed their minds, the reasons they were here.

Patting down the bodies, Alice felt for keys. Finding the silver hoop containing dozens of keys, she gave a fleeting smile and ran down the hall. She was looking for a room. Peeking in every small window on the doors of cells, as she ran down the hall before abruptly stopping at one far down the hall.

The woman in the cell, a tall woman, thin as a rail, with the dirty look of an emaciated feral dog stared at a point of the wall in her cell just to the right (her right) of the little window Alice peered in from. Alice gave a light tap on the window with a fingernail.

The woman looked at Alice almost the very second her nail touched the glass. The woman had blonde curly hair, big blue eyes, and sunken hollows underneath her portruding cheek bones. She gave a mad smile revealing her yellow teeth which had been filed down into fangs, no doubt by her.

Alice squinted her eyes shut tight and blocked her eyes with her forearm as she took her. Knife and smashed it through the glass. The woman, who had been crouched in the corner in a full-body straightjacket, now stood up and flashed her sharp teeth in a vicious smile.

"Alisssss." She said in a voice like a hiss, pronouncing the 'ce' of her name like a snake would if it spoke words as we do with a very snake-like accent.

"Take me back to Wonderland." Said Alice as she unlocked the door with the key labeled 666.

Alice undid the leather buckle keeping the long sleeves of the woman's straightjacket fastened in place. Alice grew weary of trying to take it off the way it was intended to and cut the sleeves of to a shorter length which allowed arm movement.

"Alissss, its been very long. We've been missed." the woman said as she shot her arms out and gripped Alice's wrists, bringing their two faces inches apart. "The caterpillar, the very very blue one, he whisper in my head. He tell me of the rabbit. I can smell him, I can smell his smoke in my nose." She said bringing her hands up and covered her nose, as if it were a gas mask and would filter out the supposed smell.

"Where is the white rabbit?" Alice said, observing this woman, wondering if perhaps she truely was insane. Alice had heard through other patients of a woman claiming to have been to a place called Wonderland. Telling tales of white rabbits, blue caterpillars, and red queens. If Alice herself could have been there, its quite possible this woman could really have been there as well, Alice thought.

But still cautious Alice remained, for you never knew what went on in the minds of the women who were imprisioned here.


	2. Crazies To Canterbury

_As always, to Ana. For putting up with my mind and all the crazies it contains._

Alice eyed the woman across from her in the small carriage. Blonde curls washed, face clean, normal dress, and teeth...well, the teeth were about the same.

The big blue eyes peered out from under her lashes and the wide, feminine hat with a purple feather she wore. She had an overall purple theme going on with her dress, hat, and gloves. She wrung her hands absentmindedly. Her long bony fingers intertwining and weaving with an unexpected grace in her nervousness.

Alice looked back out the window. A light drizzle of a mist covered the countryside. An infinite fertile green spreading across the acres ahead of the road. The horses' iron shoes made a steady 'clip-clop' over stones, calming to some, an invitation to insanity for others.

Alice brought her left hand's fingertips to her pounding temple. Only bringing her hand back down due to the fact it intercepted her view of the world. A sight she did not want to let go of for a minute. She had spent too much time in the asylum. Too much time being subjected to ice cold baths, beatings, and starvation. They hadn't forced her to do slave labour at the asylum, they feared her too much to want her anywhere but the confinement of her cell.

Essie, as Alice found her name to be, leaned across her seat toward Alice, showing generous amounts of cleavage In the process. "The World. _Hasss _it not been forever?" She said with a mischievous glee. It was almost as if she had been a trickful child, and after having been locked in her room for so long and bored to DEATH, had found a handful of worms, and had an unholy idea as to what to do with them.

"Quite." Alice said, turning to her. "A world where no one knows what it means to suffer. A world where no one has seen what you have." Alice turned back to the window and stared into nothing. Maybe her pupils were just black holes in her eyes. Perhaps if you took a needle you could stick it through right into her brain, because such nothingness dwelled there.

"Oh, _Alissse_. How bitter you are. Live and let go?" Essie said, leaning back. "But then again, I would love to _ssstick_ needles in every nerve of their bodies. The sight of them squirming in pain makes me feel warm inside."

Alice eyed the girl coldly. "I don't wonder for a minute why you were admitted to the asylum. You are bloody mad."

Essie's brows knit together and her lips formed a pout. "Oh, silly little Arthur didn't have a problem with me. Until I told him to make his own damn sandwich." Her dissaproving face now changed tactics and flowed into an easy smile. "That's the reason we all go there. Men. They want us to be pretty, interesting, run their homes, bear and raise their brats, and be nothing but obedient to their every whim. Not to mention its a requirement you 'do it' whenever they want. Or you end up in the _asssylum_. I honestly don't know how so many women manage to stay out of such places. But look on the bright side my dear Alice, neither of us received a clitoridectomy."

Alice stared into nothing (a growing habit it seems.) "Yes. Luckily, I have not married. Nor do I ever wish to do so."

The carriage jostled in the air as the wheels made their way over a nasty hole in the road. Essie grabbed the edge of her ridiculous hat (fearing it would fall off maybe?) And gave a look that could kill. Alice didn't know if it was directed at the hole or carriage.

Essie has a very short temper, a foul mouth, and an indecent flirtatious nature. That is how they managed to acquire their nice clothes. After they had escaped the asylum, not a difficult task, no one cared if they had two less cages of dirty crazies to look after.

After they got back to the city, they stuck to back allies until Essie managed to seduce a man to come over by her flirtatious looks and glimpses of her bare skin and took him around the corner and...well, Alice didn't want to know exactly what happened behind that corner. All she knew was in exchange the man went over to the store across the way and bought two dresses, two pairs of gloves, some cheap shoes and stockings, and that ridiculous hat Essie loved so much.

After dressing like normal people, rather grungy ones at that, they begged off some money from passer-bys and had enough to get one nights lodging at a very cheap inn. But all Alice and Essie cared about was the bath they could take and the safety they would have under the roof.

The next morning they hitched a ride on a coach who took pity on them and was going in their direction anyway so let them ride aboard.

Where are they headed?

A thick settle of woods outside Canterbury. Since escaping London was so easy, and they could travel by carriage, arriving there in a jiff would _not_ be a problem.


	3. Forest Feud

_To Ana. Having fun with all her friends._

A jolt of the carriage snapped Alice to consciousness like snapping a glowstick to life. Alice quickly looked out the window to judge their whereabouts, kicking Essie in the shin while she turned.

"Mleh!" Essie exclaimed as she quickly jumped up from her slouch against the carriage door. "What? Are we there?"

"Quite." Alice said leaning forward to the glass separating the coach from the driver. "Stop the carriage, sir."

The carriage eased into a halting stop as the horses reigned in. Alice and Essie climbed out and surveyed the view around them.

A thick settle of woods surrounded them, trees forming a dark tunnel a bit farther down the road.

Essie stretched her arms out behind her and cracked her neck. Bringing her lips back in a feral smile she turned to the driver. "We're there?" She said, tilting her head to the side, only one eye visable to the driver about because of her hat.

"Yea, ma'am. This be Canterbury. You sure you want to get off here? There's a nice settled spot not far up."

"We'll be fine." Barked Alice, interrupting their conversation. "Essie, come. Stop wasting time." She stepped into the woods over a small bush of dead something.

"_Ssshe saysss to leave. Bye, sir."_ Essie said, nodding slightly, her hat bouncing a bit from the movement, and quickly followed suit of her companion.

The driver tilted his head a bit and slightly rolled his eyes in that 'i'm just not gonna even ask' kind of way and flicked the reigns to get the horses going.

The two had been trudging through the dense woods until Essie stopped and stamped her foot, causing Alice to turn around. "What?" She said annoyed, turning to face her.

"We've been going through here for hours, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm not walking ANY. FURTHER." She said, tilting her head upward and to the side while closing her eyes. A classic display by a child in a snit.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Quit being so goddamn vexed. You want to get there while we're still young? Come on." Alice swiftly turned on her heels and with a swipe of her hand pushed aside a low-lying branch and walked off.

Essie sagged her shoulders in annoyance and let her arms go limp as she dragged her feet through the leaves after her determined partner. _"Ssssstupid girl. Treats me like i'm a sssmall child. Making me walk through these ssstupid godforsaken woods."_ Essie hissed to herself in a low voice.

Alice scanned the surrounding woods as she ducked under branches and stepped over piles of various woodsy debris. She could hear Essie behind her stepping on every twig and dry leaf. "Will you please be quiet?!" She spat without turning around. If she had been a cat, you would most definintely have seen the fur on her back stand straight up.

Her feral partner seemed to make it her business to now step on everything that made a noise just for the sheer pleasure of seeing Alice's annoyance grow and grow to whole new levels.

Alice spun around and grabbed Essie's throat, pulling out a 6" knife from a hidden pocket she had sewn into her skirt as she did so. She placed the knife tightly to Essie's neck, leaning in close to her ear and whispered; "If you make one. more. noise. I. will. kill. you." A bead followed by a small trickle of blood slid down her throat.

Essie raised a hand to Alice's cheek and stroked her long fingernail down her cheekbone. Alice's response was pressing the knife harder. "Oh,_ dear_. One of us may end up dead if we continue this." She said softly, but a hiss still in her voice.

Alice suddenly became aware of a warm sensation in her side. Glancing down, she saw Essie's other hand pressing a knife tip into her. She hadn't known Essie had a knife, where did she get it? Alice loosened the knife on the trickster's throat and she mirrored. They both pulled away and re-sheathed their steel. They then walked through the forest in silence.

**A/N**

**To all 2 of you reading my story: Sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER and a fortnight :\ School started and that is pretty self-explanitory. In fact, I love you guys so much that I am posting this shamefully short chapter when I SHOULD be studing for a test in an honors class. Oh yeah, now THATS love :**)


	4. Tension Between Them

_To Ana, who I didn't send this chapter to betaread because I was impatient._

Alice and Essie stopped at an old stone well in the forest. They sat on the wide stone ledge and ate the berries they had collected. Neither one of them were 100% sure that they weren't poisonous, but they didn't really care either. The berries were red, wild raspberries or so they thought.

Both of their dresses were filthy and marred from where unfortunate branches had snagged and tugged at the fabric like lost souls. The two still looked mildly presentable despite this. The feather in Essie's hat was crimped halfway but she didn't know that. Alice didn't feel the need to make her aware of the fact either.

Essie wiped some berry juice from her lip with a long, claw-like fingernail. The berries stung Alice's own lips because of their state of being chapped.

Alice peered down the well. It was dried up she thought, but it was very dark and deep and could have extended to Hell and past for all she knew. She thought that it must just be full of stones and dead leaves.

Until she heard it.

Whispering.

Alice recoiled back from the well's edge and Essie sprang to the ground. Both girls drew their knives and slowly made their way back to the wells edge, careful not to make sound.

Essie brought a long bony finger to her lips as she picked up a stone, which she threw down the well. It knocked off the well's sides twice before ending with a succession of clacking noises.

Silence.

_Shhhhtt. Pat-pat-pat-pat-pat-pat-_

Something was down there, that something was running now. It was a well bottom, how was there room to run? Essie swung her legs over the side of the well and pushed off into the darkness. Alice's eyes widened in shock. The idiot was going to snap bones in that fall.

Peering into the darkness she couldn't see nor hear her companion screaming or even land at the bottom. She braced herself for hearing a sickening crunch, but it never came.

"Essie?" Alice called down, her voice unsure. "Are you quite alright?"

There was silence, followed by "someone _livesss_ down here!" The not-so-dead-and-crunchy Essie called up.

"Are you injured?"

"No. Come down."

Alice leaned over the well to get a good look at what she was dealing with then hopped down into the well. The impact came later than she thought it would.

'Oooff!' escaped her lips as her feet collided with the black and white checkerboard tile. Her knees gave way and she fell to them, as well as landing on her elbows. 'Blast!' She muttered as she picked herself up.

Looking around, she didn't see Essie. What she did see was a circular room, checkerboard flooring, old doors (some off their hinges or decrepit in some way), and a few lit candles in fixtures on the walls. The red candles dripping bloody wax slowly to the floor, forming elaborate layers of waxy red tears as still waterfalls. Not to mention years of dust.

"Where are you?" Alice said, inspecting the doors. Thick layers of rust were corroding the hinges and only glistens of gold could be seen between the orange scabs. Alice traced her finger over one, feeling the small hills and valleys of this natural destruction of metal.

"Sssttt!" Hissed Essie quickly and loudly in Alice's distracted ear and pinched her shoulder hard.

With one move she whipped around, knife to Essie's throat. Grabbing a handful of blonde hair, suspending her head backward and exposing her throat. "Do that. One. More. Time. I swear, I will kill you."

A chuckle reverberated in her throat. "Joke, my dear. Joke. You looked_ sssssoooooo_ tensse."

A devilish smile crept onto Alice's face.

Essie's smile dropped, afraid.

_"You make me sick."_

Alice walked in solitude through the rotting door frame. She chose this door because the others led to other rooms, this one led outside.

Dark foliage and spiders the size of her hand were the first sights to greet her through this doorway. Long intricate webs were collecting water from the now heavy downpour that fell as if it's mission was to drown the world.

Alice wiped the blood on her hand onto her dress, staining the blue in a mortal smear. Her only protection against the driving rain was Essie's wide-brimmed hat. The long feather hung over the edge, swaying with her shuffling movements. Colossal plants and flowers formed a tunnel around her, a thick forest. She just trudged on, hoping to see something. A sign, a building, a being, anything.

Settling under a red mushroom, Alice drew her knees up to her chest and stared into the rain unblinkingly. Growing tired from the sounds of the rain, she closed her eyes and slept.

**A/N**

**A bit of a longer chapter (I think) for you guys. Thank you to anyone who reviewed**.


	5. Another Bloody Smoker

_To Ana, of course. _

The silence woke her. The rain had stopped and the lack of a torrential downpour stirred her mind to conciousness. Alice slowly peeled her eyes open. The kind of peeling your eyes open like the morning of your first and worst hangover. We all remember that with fond memories, don't we? Feeling like your eyes are nothing but gummy blobs in their sockets.

Crawling out from under the collasal mushroom, she looked around. what surrounded her was a tunnel of surreal folliage and creatures. Horseflies, dragonflies, butterflies, all literal portrayals of their names.

_'Essie'_, Alice thought as she rose to her feet. Then, looking down at the front of her bloody dress, she remembered. O_h, right. I killed her. Nevermind_.

_"Who are you?" a raspy voice behind her said, threadbare and deep._

Alice whipped around to face the voice, knife at the ready, knees bent into a slight crouch. She lowered her knife as she recognized him; Epsilom.

'Epsilom," she breathed, "you're alive."

"Stupid girl. Did you think I was dead?" Epsilom took a long drag from his pipe and breathed it out like a sigh.

"Smokers only last so long, and I don't know the exact lifespan of talking blue caterpillars."

"Cheeky bratt. Why have you returned?" A puff of smoke escaped his lips as he finished his sentance.

"To escape the madness."

"Madness? It's all in your mind, child." *puff*

"If that is true, the world is in my mind."

"It very well could be." *puff*

Alice's eye twitched. The world was in her _mind? _

Such a simple retalliation for a statement. What annoyed her though was the fact that for all she knew, it might be correct.

Alice gripped her knife, tugging it free of the folds of her dress she had concealed it in. In a wide arc, she swung the knife quickly behind her shoulder, and using the force of her movement, thrust it back forward and released her grip. The cold steel sliced through the air like a hot knife through butter.

The knife met it's mark exacty, the blue brow of the caterpillar. Blood and puss escaped it's fleshy prison and streamed down the falling body. Epsilon slid off the mushroom like a book being balanced on a head and crashed to the ground.

Brains slid out the new incision like snakes from a barrel, twisting and fleshy. Unfazed, Alice, with the gleaming look of a killer, quickly yanked her knife free of the body. Brains twisting and going through contortions at her feet.

Wiping the blade off on the cooling cheek of Epsilon, Alice stood for a moment before walking deeper into the familiar unknown.

**A/N: Sorry it's bee so long and this is so short. Basically I got hit with a ton of work, drama, and sophomore year. Just the usual lame excuses ^^**


	6. Resolute

Resolute, Alice walked on. Night had fallen, but still she continued in her search for anything familiar. Guided by the full moon, she wove her way through the dead forest that surrounded her.

"Look...who's...here." said a voice from above.

Alice in a flash of steel grabbed her knife in a double grip and fell into a slightly crouching stance, looking up.

She couldn't see him, just his teeth. A familiar sight.

"Cheshire cat." Alice said, still maintaining her stance.

"Mr. Cheshire cat to you." A wide grin spread across his face, but Alice knew it was just an excuse for him to show off his rows of fangs. Quite the show-off, as always.

"Alice, oh, Alice." The Cheshire Cat said, floating down to perch on a low branch, his body re-materializing. "It's been long."

"Where am I, Cheshire?" Alice barked, "Where are the Queens?"

"Oh, Alice." The Cheshire cat said, disappearing then re-appearing on her shoulder. "Only the Red Queen is left. The White Queen died, but the Red Queen's spite has preserved her it seems."

Alice scoffed. That was totally believable. Her spite preserved her like pickles in a jar, and just as foul.

"What became of the White Queen?"

"She took ill. Rumors say it was poison."

"Poison? Who would do that?"

"Some say it was Red Queen spies." Cheshire flashed his rows of teeth as he tilted his head to the side.

"Can you take me to the Queen, Cheshire?"

"Take you there?! Why...", His eyes widened even larger than Alice thought possible.

"To kill her of course. She's a wicked old hag. Wonderland needs no ruler."

Cheshire faded into the night, his voice echoing out;

"I do so like your style."

The Red Palace stood, menacing, even in its delapitated state. Window panes shattered, paint peeling off, bricks falling off the high towers to the ground far below like suicide jumpers.

The collasal trees surrounding the palace appeared devoid of any life. Gnarled, twisted, and hard. The exposed, knotted roots climbed in through the foundation and at the bases of the towers. Dying vines clawed their way desperately up the tower, similar to the souls of fallen pharohs climbing their pyramids to their eternal rest.

The moat was thick with slime and the rotting bodies of the dead. A thick haze of flies and mosquitos formed deafening clouds over the corpses. Alice had never tried a rotting corpse before, but it seemed a tasty morsel to the bugs.

Alice treaded carefully across the rickety old bridge to the great doors. It was like walking on egg shells, crossing that bridge. Every moan and creak of the wood was like a cry of pain, and equally as annoying.

She walked to the doors, but a sudden pinch in her neck made her stop. Her hand shot to her neck and she pulled the dart out. She tried to inspect the small needle, but her vision blurred and double vision interwove itself as her eyes rolled up and she fell to the ground.


	7. Bloody Murder

All Alice knew was darkness. She didn't know if she had been here a hour or for years. Every particle of her being seared, burned, and ached. Her body felt like a walnut after you scoop the meat out, a hollow shell.

Opening her eyes, she saw nothing.

Am I blind?

No, that's not it.

There was something over her eyes. Blinking, she felt her eyelashes sweep lightly across cloth.

She tried to make a sound, only to find she was gagged. Now aware of the foreign cloth in her mouth, she gagged.

Her mouth was unbelievably dry and she had to fight the urge to swallow to avoid choking

As she started hacking the muscles in her torso contracted. Pain crashed over her in waves. The feeling was akin to if someone had taken an ice cream scoop and removed all your insides. Hollowed out like a pumpkin at halloween.

Tears welled at the corners of her eyes, only to quickly be absorbed by that shamwow of a blindfold.

A pair of hands wrapped themselves around Alice's neck. In her attempts to knee, punch, or kick her attacker it was discovered she was restrained. Bindings secured her flailing limbs down, their tautness restricting her movement to only a few inches.

The blindfold was ripped off and the sudden white light pierced her heres like the shards of broken light bulbs.

Alice squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, her nose wrinkling in the process, a devilish hiss escaping her mouth with every exhale.

The fingers of the hands pried her eyelids open and help them there. Looking up, Alice saw a mirror on the ceiling. In the reflection, a devilish creature, maybe once human, was tied down to a table.

The dingy broken white tile that covered all the floor and walls was dripping down to the ground with gore and fluids.

The girl on the table's torso was cut down the middle, insides, or lack thereof, were exposed. On the floor around the metal table upon wheels on which she was tied, organs were beating and pulsating on the floor. Entrails skittered like snakes along the floor, going into contortions and squirting fluids.

Looking next to her, she saw the body that went with the hands. A pale green, wrinkled old man with a bulbous nose and crinkly eyes cackled. His small, crazed eyes crinkled at the edges. Spit flew from his mouth as he threw his head back, cackling, and released his grip on Alice's eyes.

The man's lips were wrinkled and just looked like skin that ended, no pale pink or red lips, just a wrinkled curtain of flesh that covered his large, crooked, and yellowing teeth. The two top front teeth resembled a rabbit's but rounded at the edges. His tongue looked like some sort of fat sea worm on which lived encrusting algae and lichen.

The rest of him was covered in a white, seemingly straitjacket, held on by leather straps with buckled, the sleeves were not belted down, and he wore this like a normal shirt. He wore ragged black pants under this along with a tall and old black-and-white checkered top hat with symbols on the occasional square. The hat looked like it had been sat upon and left outside many many times.

Parts of the man were mechanic, and a large metal gear came out of his back, probably some part of his spine.

He stomped one of his feet (in black and white saddle dress shoes) down on the ground hard as he laughed. This caused a rack hanging on the wall with jars and knives to shake and jolt dangerously, threatening to drop its's contents.

Suddenly he stopped laughing and moved his gaze directly to her's.

Alice, you look so frightened.

He removed the gag from her mouth and she screamed. His hand quickly shot over her mouth and stayed there until she stopped. He raised his hand off her mouth and brought a finger to his mouth. 'Shhh'

His hand had left a bloody handprint on her face. No doubt it was her's.

"Are you...the Hatter?" Alice croaked out, her throat sore.

The Hatter clapped his hands, "Now you remember, love. Good. Now, time to continue.",the hatter brought a small scalpel to his mouth and licked it. He then reached inside of her and scraped along the inside of her ribs, separating muscle from bone. Alice screamed bloody murder before passing out.


End file.
